12 Things We Learned From Judy Blume (Happy Birthday, Judes!)

I can't call her and wish her happy birthday, because I've never actually met her--funny, considering she had such a huge impact on my life. And I know I'm not alone in that. These lessons from Blume books (and the author's own mouth) are as fresh in my head today as they were in middle school, when my nickname was Fudge because I looked like the kid who played him in the TV series.

Yeah, that's TV Fudge. And I was still blazingly confident. Probably because I read so many Judy Blume books--and learned so much from them. Such as:

That "fear is often disguised as moral outrage." Well-put, JB.

To not give up when you believe in your work. The book that became Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing (Fudge!) was rejected by several publishers, one because they were worried kids would swallow turtles if they read it.

That Summer Sisters never gets old. Not on the second or the twenty-second read.

That even if we never said this aloud (or wrote it to God), thinking this would get us in trouble more than once: “It's not so much that I like him as a person, God, but as a boy he's very handsome.” (Are You There, God? It's Me, Margaret)

To be kind to middle children.

That if you feel like bucking a trend, other people are probably dying to, too. You know your beloved YA favorite Forever? Judy was inspired to write it when her daughter, Randy, "asked for a story about two nice kids who have sex without either of them having to die. She had read several novels about teenagers in love. If they had sex the girl was always punished—an unplanned pregnancy, a hasty trip to a relative in another state, a grisly abortion (illegal in the U.S. until the 1970's), sometimes even death."

To just be yourself, even if yourself is a wild little dreamer who's obsessed with finding a tall, dark, handsome lover and proving that your neighbor is Hitler in disguise. Like one Sally J. Freedman.

To never be afraid to talk about something. Blume once told a reporter that she cried during every day of a previous marriage. She's written about everything from divorce to racism. And she's a fierce opponent of censorship.

That no amount of time spent trying to make things perfect will make things perfect all of the time. Lookin' at you, middle-school overachiever Rachel Robinson.

That 90 percent of the time, It's Not the End of The World.

That slam books are the devil. Right, Sheila the Great? (Also, we're suddenly wishing for a time when slam books were as sophisticated as written bullying got.)

That "We must, we must, we must increase our bust" doesn't work, but it sure is fun to say. It still gets stuck in our heads once in a while. (Are You There, God? It's Me, Margaret)

What did Judy teach you?

Photo: Wikimedia Commons, Amazon

ADVERTISEMENT

Megan AngeloEntertainment writer. I love talking about TV so much, you'll eventually back slowly away from me at a party.